Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to displays and more particularly to multi-display computers.
Description of the Related Art
Computers customarily are sold with a single display. Recently, with the advancement of liquid crystal display (LCD) technology in flat panel displays that consume a small physical footprint, and the relative affordability of flat panel displays, end users have coupled multiple different displays to a single computer through a multi-display adapter. While each individual display can display an identical image of the same desktop, many opt to drive the display adapter to cause the display of the desktop computing environment across the aggregation of the multi-display environment. Consequently, in the latter circumstance, each display can show only a designated portion of the desktop computing environment.
A multi-head video card provides the requisite circuitry for driving multiple displays in a multi-display environment. Most, if not all, current multi-head video cards are able to “span” a single frame buffer across two monitors. The result is one large rectangular desktop space where both monitors operate at the same resolution and depth settings and usually the same refresh rate. In “extended” mode additional desktop area is created by giving each monitor its own frame buffer. The result is a virtual desktop space comprising multiple adjacent, but not necessarily aligned, rectangular areas. This is a more flexible configuration as each monitor can be of different resolution, depth, and refresh rate. In addition, the desktop area is not necessarily rectangular. Both “span” and “extended” mode present the display space to a user as a contiguous area, allowing objects to be moved between or even straddled across displays as if they were one.
Of note, in a multi-display environment, one display is configured to be the primary display in which applications are initially displayed when launched and the remaining displays are secondary displays. Once configured, the expansive display space afforded by a multi-display environment allows a user to leave the display windows of multiple different documents or programs visible in the different displays as opposed to requiring the end user to minimize unused windows and to maximize actively used window because of lack of viewable space when only one display is used. In addition, in a multi-display environment, end users have come to logically associate one display for one purpose, for instance displaying email, and another display can be used for another purpose, such as displaying a work document. Accordingly, substantial work efficiencies can be achieved through the use of a multi-display environment.
Even still, the use of a multi-display environment is not without its cost. In a multi-display environment, the end user must adjust the video settings of each display. Manually configuring the multi-display environment including selecting a primary display via a video driver for the multi-head video adapter can be cumbersome for less sophisticated end users, however.